This year, graduate of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics (FPM/ FMF) Oleksandr Prykhodko has been awarded a personal scholarship from the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It is impossible to forget this friendly, cheerful, and as they say now - positive young man. Looking like a celebrity, his deep passion for science is not taken seriously. Studying at the Department of Mathematical Analysis and Probability Theory and guided by Professor, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Andrii Yuriiovych Pylypenko, he thoroughly studies stochastic calculus, namely, random walks with deviations. ‘It is well known how random walks can behave,’ says the student. ‘Specific cases or limits of random walks (with a certain rationing) can include diffusion models such as Brownian motion. But when at some point or area the behavior of random walk is somehow changed, in this case its normalized behavior is precisely what I want to study. We have already considered several models of such deviations, and concerning one of them I wrote an article “Limit behavior of random walks with deviations”, published in the journal “Theory of Stochastic Processes”, which is part of the Scopus Scientometric Database.
The student's mentor Andrii Pylypenko gave more information: ‘Oleksandr studies diffusions in a medium with translucent membranes that can transmit or reflect particles. Such processes are used in geophysics, biology, medicine, and telecommunications and can describe the processes of heat or air penetration through breathable materials, models of axons in the white matter of the brain, processes of thermal conductivity in composite materials, models of telecommunication traffic, etc.’
Besides a deep fascination with mathematics, Oleksandr Prykhodko gladly takes part in public initiatives. He wants to contribute to the state with clean air, land and water. ‘Man is a small part of nature,’ he says. ‘That's why it's our duty to protect the environment and preserve it for future generations.’ Oleksandr is environmentally conscious: he sorts out waste and spreads such correct environmental behavior among people around him: he inspires with his own example, explains and encourages everyone to be environmentally friendly. ‘It's so easy,’ the young man says anxiously, ‘to hand over home sorted plastic, paper, and metal for recycling.’ And he adds with a smile, ‘In general, as a plan for the future, when I run out of energy to watch few efforts for sorting garbage, I will start my own business in garbage handling. Wish me success.’
The student has varied leisure activities. ‘In my free time I usually go to the gym, go swimming or canoeing or go to the theater. I really missed the performances of the National Opera of Ukraine when the theater was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Yet now I can visit ballet and concert performances,’ he shares.
Oleksandr has graduated with a bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, but decided to enter the master's educational program “Insurance and Financial Mathematics” the speciality “Mathematics” of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. He is grateful to the University Administration and the FPM for the opportunity to study according to the European model of education and to exercise the right to free choice of subjects: ‘I was allowed to change the sequence of subjects studied in different semesters. So I was able to gain the necessary knowledge (which I already use for research work) a year earlier.’
At the end of the conversation, analyzing his own experience, the young man wished his younger colleagues, who just entered the university, to find themselves in the field they had chosen. And if you do not succeed, then do not waste time and look for your place in another speciality as soon as possible.